# What are the limits of a seagull's predation? Will it try to kill & eat adult birds? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2008, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106 "2008-06-07T05:44:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/1 "2008-06-07T05:44:15Z")
[I was reading this wiki on gulls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gull) and it was kind of unclear. Will hungry gulls try to kill and eat adult birds of other species (I know they go after chicks all the time). [In the wiki pic of it attacking a coot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gull_attacking_coot.jpg), is that to defend territory or to kill it & eat it? ---
**Author:** ![Mojo\_Pin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mojo\_Pin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo_Pin)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/2 "2008-06-07T07:38:30Z")
it looks like the coot is making off with some food that the seagull wants. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/3 "2008-06-07T18:22:49Z")
Many seagulls are inveterate kleptoparasites (steal food from other birds), and when they aren’t doing that they’re scavenging. If they need to tho they can catch live fish. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/4 "2008-06-07T18:36:03Z")
I saw some seagulls chasing a bald eagle, trying to steal a fish. I felt rather embarrassed for the eagle. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/5 "2008-06-07T19:22:37Z")
While not typical behavior, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a hungry gull killed and ate an adult sparrow-sized bird, since they are highly opportunistic. However, the other bird would probably have to be incapacitated in some way for the gull to succeed in catching it. A coot is really much too big to be prey for any gull. In that picture, the gull is probably chasing the coot in order to get the food in the coot’s bill. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/6 "2008-06-07T22:09:13Z")
I remember reading an account on some birding (birdwatching) message board of a large gull, possibly a Great Black-Backed, attempting to kill a small duck by dragging it off of an ice shelf and drowning it. I doubt I will be able to find a link but I will try. This was an encounter witnessed by a birder, in the Northeast United States within the last five years. There was some theorizing that as municipal dumps are closed some of these larger gull species need to turn to other sources of food. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/7 "2008-06-08T13:11:13Z")
Gulls do seem to attack an awful lot of other birds. I’ve seen gulls attacking other injured gulls, but I don’t think they would try to kill a large, healthy bird in order to eat it. Little birds may be a different story - I can imagine them attacking something small, since the rules for gulls seem to entirely consist of ‘if you can get away with it, eat it.’ Now I can’t get the gulls from _Finding Nemo_ out of my head - “Mine. Mine. Mine? Mine. Mine…” ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/8 "2008-06-08T13:39:47Z")
Mine ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-limits-of-a-seagulls-predation-will-it-try-to-kill-eat-adult-birds/452106/9 "2008-06-08T22:40:04Z")
As predicted I was unable to find a link to the account I read. However I found this which seems to imply that at least one species of large North American gull attacks and kills fairly large birds: [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1350730](http://www.jstor.org/pss/1350730) Googling “gull attacking duck” or a similar phrase will bring up other accounts.